Alright, I hate to start off 2009 on a negative note... but my fun night out to a restaurant with girlfriends on New Years Eve turned out to be an absolute DISASTER, so for next New Years Eve, I will NOT be going to ANY restaurant! Here's how it all went down:

We had reservations for 7:30. We arrive at this restaurant in Toronto, it was a type of restaurant I had never been to before... it's all you can eat, but you order your food. Anywho, we arrive there at 7:20 and expect to wait til the actual time our reservation is... so we sat down on the couch at the restaurant and were talking about what we want for 2009. 7:30 rolls around... no table yet, along with a consistent line up of people at the restaurant waiting to get seated. It's now 7:45... okay, it's new years eve... even though our reservation was for 7:30, it's a holiday so not being on time was expected. 8:00 rolls around... okay our reservation was a half an hour ago... and the hostess has let about four groups of people in ahead of us (two of which did NOT have a reservation.. I checked the hostess's clipboard when she was seating someone else... hey desperate times call for desperate measures!) Now we're starting to get a bit grouchy because we're hungry. Remember, it's 8:00... reservation was for 7:30 (did I mention that already? haha) Another group of people get seated... I go and have a talk with the hostess... and by 8:30 we were seated. An hour after our reservation! What was the point of the reservation????? Okay, it's cool, we're seated now and just want to eat. But there's more bad news... our waiter keeps forgetting about our table! Everyone around us keeps getting served... we're seated at 8:30 and got our first plate of food at 9:20. What is going on here!!!!! And the restaurant had the nerve to add a tip automatically onto the bill. Let's see... we had a reservation that was ignored... Our table kept getting ignored.... Tip? I think not.

Okay, really, I am always incredibly nice at restaurants...grocery stores... etc. Because I was a cashier for 3 years, worked at a membership desk at a gym and I worked the membership desk at a store that requires a membership to shop there, and I know what cranky, rude customers are like. However... when service is terrible, It just doesn't feel right leaving a tip (especially when you are ignored most of the night!) Needless to say... our fun, girlfriends night out for dinner turned out to be grumpy girlfriends who's blood sugar was low from not eating... an absolute complain-fest... and you want to know the worst part? Less complaining was the number one thing on my list of new years resolutions! And I broke it on New Years Eve!